Frustrations with printing on fabric

For the scarves pictured below, I printed the images on Printed Treasures pre-treated 200-count pima cotton fabric, made by Dritz. As with most of the pre-treated fabric products, they weren't cheap. I believe the package of 5 8.5" x 11" sheets was $18 at JoAnn Fabrics. I was able to use a 40% off coupon. The first sheetI printed came out with pale horizontal lines across the entire image, so I cleaned the printer head and the next image came out without the lines, but the saturation and contrast were a little pale. I didn't follow their instructions to use the "Best" quality setting because in my previous experience with printing on fabric, that spills out too much ink, so I used the next setting down. For my third attempt, I used the highest quality image setting - bingo. Good color and contrast, and during rinsing, little ink ran out.

I wasn't entirely happy with the weight of their 200-count pima cotton so wanted to try something different. I purchased a package of 6 sheets of silk habotai, also at JoAnn Fabrics, for $13.99, made by Blumenthal (Crafter's Choice PhotoFabric). I figured that would be nice and lightweight. I also picked up a package of their cotton poplin to compare that to the Dritz pima cotton.

The Crafter's Choice instructions are a little confusing. It says to "set printer parameters to "normal" resolution and "plain paper" to save ink or on high resolution for finer details." I assume by "normal" or "high" they meant photo quality. I wanted fine detail, so I used the highest photo quality setting, which then did NOT let me choose plain/normal paper. I had to select a photo paper setting so I tried "presentation paper matte" which is what I use to print on a matte finish photo paper, and I knew choosing a glossy paper setting wouldn't be right. I followed the instructions for my first experiment on the silk habotai to let it dry after printing, I removed the backing, ironed it and then ran it under tap water. ALL of the blue ink ran out. Every last bit. Image ruined. I thought perhaps it might have to do with the fact that I used the highest print quality setting, so I tried another run with the next-best image quality setting which my printer then also let me choose "normal" paper to go with. Nope. All of the blue ink ran out again. I'm done with the silk. And it's a shame becuase it's nice and light and drapey. 3 sheets ruined because during my first experiment, I actually printed 2 sheets because I figured I'd have no problem.

The cotton poplin didn't run as much, but did bleed a tiny bit. Just enough that when I compare that image with the Dritz Printed Treasures images, the color is off a bit. The cotton poplin images are alos a tiny bit blurrier than the Dritz images, and surprisingly, the cotton poplin is stiffer than Dritz's pima cotton.

I was hoping it would be the other way around because $18 for 5 sheets is a lot more expensive than $14 for 6, and I didn't see any bulk packages of either one to use a future coupon on.

I may go back to printing my own using BubbleJet Set, if I can find the heavy duty freezer paper sheets that someone's blog mentioned. I have had no luck getting regular freezer paper to adhere well enough to my "print my own" sheets. I've tried using full-sheet labels but they're very expensive.

Any ideas, tips, thoughts, are welcome! Because right now I'm on a roll with these scarves, and if worse comes to worse I'll buy more of the Printed Treasures sheets, one trip/coupon at a time!

New scarves!

Hot off the press - err - Bernina are 2 super soft and large one-of-a-kind scarves, just finished by me an hour ago.

"Pumpkins" (pictured above) incorporates a photo taken by me a few weeks ago at Tim's Pumpkin Patch in Rose Hill, NY, printed on cotton fabric, surrounded by other soft cotton quilting fabrics. The backing is a rich brown minkee, which to me is softer than velvet. Approximately 7" wide x 54" long. Available for $69 at Gallery 54 in Skaneateles, NY, or directly from me if you contact me before it sells in the shop. Shipping is FREE. This gold/brown/purple combination has been a winner with previous scarves.

"Buttercup" incorporates a photo of my infamous cow quilt named Buttercup. Buttercup has been to Houston TX, Williamsburg VA and Pennsylvania (quilt shows), Delavan Art Gallery in Syracuse, and is currently for sale at Gallery 54 in Skaneateles, NY. She is also going to be published in Lark Books' upcoming "500 Art Quilts" book (see post below). I sell countless cards of her image - she touches the hearts of cow and farm lovers. She's printed on cotton fabric, surrounded by other soft cotton quilting fabrics including some fun cow scenes and some hand-painted fabric (by me). The backing is a rich black minkee, which to me is softer than velvet. Approximately 7" wide x 58" long. Available for $69 at Gallery 54 in Skaneateles, NY, or directly from me if you contact me before it sells in the shop. Shipping is FREE. Better photo coming tomorrow!

Contemporary quilt greeting cards for sale

To celebrate my work being published in the 500 Art Quilts book as blogged about below, I'm offering $2.50 shipping on any amount of contemporary quilt greeting cards purchased from my website. All quilt cards are high-quality prints of my original quilt designs, are blank inside, and are suitable for framing at 5" x 7" each.

Published, again!

I am so excited and happy to share that 2 of my art quilts are going to be published in Lark Books' upcoming "500 Art Quilts" (look for it in 2010), along with 498 other great works of fiber art, many made by folks I know in person and online thanks to the QuiltArt and SAQA groups. My two pieces that will be included are the infamous "Buttercup" and "New Hope, PA, Reflections I."Buttercup (more info can be seen on my website, here)

New Hope, PA, Reflections I (more info can be seen on my website, here)

More photos from Lake Placid/Mirror Lake

Enjoy! And for even more pics, see my mom's blog.

Mirror Lake, in what was truly "mirror mode."

The Mirror Lake Inn during a rare glimpse of sun.

Sun hitting the distant trees, making them glow.

The base of Whiteface Mountain. Those "bald" areas are ski slopes. YIKES!

Maple leaves glowing in the sun.

A loon cruising around Mirror Lake. Wish we had been able to hear his call.

If you leave Lake Placid on 86 heading Northeast, you'll pass Whiteface Mountain and you'll be following the West branch of the Ausable River. Turn directly east on 86 in the Wilmington area, then in Jay head south on 9N which follows the East branch of the Ausable River, and then cut back west to Lake Placid on 73. Makes for a nice scenic loop that takes about an hour or so. Pictured above and below is the view facing back toward Whiteface Mountain from the east-west portion of 86. The tops of the mountains were obscured by clouds, fog and rain.



An interesting lichen.

Lake Placid itself from the boat launch near Mirror Lake. There doesn't seem to be a way to drive around the perimeter of Lake Placid.

While driving our "loop tour" it started to rain. These were taken through the windshield.


This is the amazing scenery and color that we saw virtually from Old Forge, NY, all the way to Lake Placid. I love the contrast of the deciduous trees' leaves against the evergreens, and boy, did some areas smell amazing - you'd open your car door and be transported to Christmas with the smell of balsam and pine!


Closeup of some peeling birch bark.



At the base of Whiteface Mountain, the Ausable River was raging from the recent rains. The noise was amazingly loud.
The perspective isn't clear here. That boulder in the lower left was probably 10' across or so.

Trip to Lake Placid - wow

Although the weather could have been better (too much rain and grayness and dreariness), we managed to see some AMAZING fall foliage!!! Wow. Talk about timing it right. For now, here are 3 quick photos for your enjoyment. One is of the view out our hotel window on Mirror Lake this morning, looking south, pictured above. Last year the tops of those mountains were snow-covered by this time!

Here's a pretty shot of some maple leaves closeup above, also on Mirror Lake, taken on our walk to Lake Placid.

And last, for now, is a picture of Whiteface Mountain from the Jay, NY, area. They SKI on that? OMG! You can't even see the top because it's covered in clouds!

Tim's Pumpkin Patch and Navarino Orchards

Yesterday we went to Navarino Orchards on Rt 20, between Skaneateles and Syracuse, NY, in the eastern Finger Lakes region, near our home. Navarino is an apple orchard with pick-your-own and bagged apples, all sorts of goodies like pies and jellies, pumpkins, gourds and squash, and the BEST apple fritters around. They're 3 for $2.00, piping hot, covered in cinnamon and sugar, but the new creation is an apple fritter sundae, pictured below. This was our lunch. YUM-O, as Rachel Ray would say. We had to run to our car to eat them because the yellow jackets were out in full force with tons of them swarming the food area, landing on the food, us, the counter, you name it.

Prior to that, we visited Tim's Pumpkin Patch in Rose Hill, NY, on Rose Hill Road, just off Rt 20 in Marcellus. Tim's has a great selection of all different kinds of pumpkins (see my previous post), some pick your own, some already laid out, a few barns with activities for kids like hay mazes, gourds and winter squash for sale, another barn with baked goods, coffee, cider and Halloween/Autumn household knicknacks for sale, and some animals. Yesterday's weather was the perfect Indian summer weather - deep blue sky interspersed with puffy clouds, warm, slight breeze. I wanted to get some pumpkin funnel cake there but knew we were going to Navarino Orchards next for fritters so I refrained. The funnel cake smelled sooooo good.

Pictured below is the little pig shelter. Inside we could see one pig resting, who is barely visible if you enlarge this image and look inside the lefthand window.

Next to the pigs is an area with a few goats, who can walk from one enclosure to another via a second-story wooden walkway. They seem to enjoy heights, as they ascend from one shelter to the ROOF of the chicken coop.

We noticed that the smell in the goat area smells just like goat cheese, and we wondered why. Goat cheese is one of my newest loves, as Wegmans was offering samples recently on warmed bread, and I bought a little container from a Vermont manufacturer. Hubby *hates* it, because of the smell. To me it's an odd smell but it reminds me of farms so it seems fresh and natural to eat, but when we smelled the goats today I said that it struck me as odd because steak and milk don't smell like a cow pasture, and chicken doesn't smell like a chicken coop... so what is it in the goat cheese that smells like the goat pen???


Pictured above is one goat on the roof of the chicken coop waiting for the conveyor belt to be cranked to bring some snacks up. Kids can purchase some food and place it in little cups (looks like the cap of an aerosol container) which are attached to the conveyor belt. They turn the crank and the cups move up, and the goats know that food is en route!

Here's a "Bean Cat" - hubby said she looked like our Beaner, and she does, as she's a dilute tortoisesehll. She was very petite like Bean, but was very aloof.

They also had a really pretty sunflower field edging the beginning of the pumpkin patch:

PUMPKINS AND APPLES AND CORN!

How can these not make you smile and long for cooler weather, fireplaces, blankets, hot cider, falling leaves and pumpkin pie?

'tis the season for Pumpkin Spice Lattes...

Finally, they're selling this in normal-sized containers, not gigantic-could-never-consume-this-before-perishing unless I drank 8 cups of coffee a day size. It is soooo good... and so perfect for the beginning of autumn.

cows and toupees

"Isn't my toupee great? I just had it made. They even curled the ends for me."

"Personally, I like mine better. I went for the bleached blonde look."

"I need to find my receipt and get my money back.
Mine isn't large enough to cover my bald spot."

TGIF, everyone.

A neat clematis seed pod...

This seed pod belongs to some sort of unusual clematis that we planted a few years ago. It gets the tiniest purple flowers that point downward and are sort of trumpet-shaped. I don't have any good shots of it in bloom. Nice thing is that it blooms from late spring until August, and grows fast!

Camouflage cats?

Today I took a picture of Chessie enjoying herself and the beautiful early fall weather on our enclosed front porch. It struck me that she matched her surroundings beautifully, down to her brilliant green eyes. Was she posing there intentionally?

Then I remembered that I had photographed little Beaner on the dining room table next to some old silver last week, and the late afternoon sun combined with the tarnish on the silver created a nice gray/silver/peach glow, just like her fur.

And then I shot a photo of Noodle Bear, matching his hardwood surroundings (couldn't get him to pose on top of a caramel sundae [grin]).

Do they think they're invisible, or utterly beautiful? Hmm...

Fun with cameras

I love my Canon Powershot S5IS, and I cannot believe that I dropped my older, smaller Powershot A75 a few months ago and it no longer works! It's not worth getting it fixed, as newer, smaller, more powerful cameras are available cheaply, so maybe I'll ask Santa for a pocket one for Christmas, but I really don't like cameras that are TOO small as they don't feel right to me.

Yesterday I snapped some pics in the garden as the season is winding down already, which seems bizarre as our warm weather seemed to really get started here just a few weeks ago.

Pictured above and below are 2 really neat shots of closeups of my Hyundai Elantra's front lights! I never noticed before that there's a tiny orange bulb to the side of the main light area with a tiny arm sticking out beneath it, that has a plastic "thing" on the end, I guess to magnify the light. Reminds me of closeups of bug's eyes.


This is some sort of hibiscus that is supposed to be a perennial - we shall see!

A very fragrant late-blooming hosta. You can't smell it walking by it, unfortunately, but up close it smells like a mix of jasmine and honeysuckle!

Hosta leaf

Tomato blight - hit this area really hard this year. The leaves die mid-season and turn brown, and the fruit can't ripen. All of the time we spent planting vegetables this spring was worthless. Only peppers did well, which is weird because they really need hot, hot weather. Our gourds are lost in a field of crabgrass that just EXPLODED this year (last year the weeds weren't as bad), I think there are only 2 pumpkins, we only got a few zucchini whose skins were super tough, not all of the sunflowers sprouted, the bean seeds never came up - talk about discouraging! Last year we had tons of gourds and pumpkins, and they love water, yet last year we didn't have a lot of rain and this year we had tons - go figure.

Black-eyed susans - one of the hardiest, easiest to grow perennials, and the goldfinches love stripping them of their seeds

Some sort of Malva

A gorgeous dwarf hydrangea that blooms all summer, and that has flowers ranging from pink to blue and peach, all on one plant!

It all started with Etsy... I think!

This morning I saw someone selling a print by Edmund Dulac (I think... I can't even recall for certain now as one thing led to another and soon I was immersed in surfing with a million tabs open in Firefox). I had never heard of Dulac, but loved the image, so I Googled him. He was a French illustrator, born 1882, died in 1953, mostly known for illustrating Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. I love the image above, titled "The Wind's Tale: She Was Always Picking Flowers." Here's a link to more of his work... and this one, dulac.artpassions.net, has many more. I LOVE "The Bells" (thumbnail below). The colors and the moon remind me of Maxfield Parrish, another favorite of mine:

From there I discovered many other paintings by him that are amazing, including this one below from The Princess and the Pea - his perspective really illustrates the height of the bed with all of the mattresses piled high, and I love the purple interior of the canopy! My color!

Her pose reminded me of The Lady of Shallot, painted by John William Waterhouse, also another favorite that I had to Google, after I remembered the name of the painting:


Continuing to poke around, I discovered Walter Crane . According to Wikipedia: "Walter Crane (15 August 1845 – 14 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century." Be sure to view the slideshow at the link above which includes this beauty titled "Summer:"

I love this gorgeous painting by him below called The Masque of the Four Seasons:

More later, as I discovered many more paintings like this that blew me away!

Fresh peach salsa

Oh my. This is to die for in summer. Great on pork, chicken, fish, or on pasta... even by itself! Dice a fresh peach, tomatoes, red onions, 1 jalapeno and cilantro. Add some rice wine vinegar and olive oil, and top off with freshly chopped cilantro. YUM-O.

new mosaic jewelry from Etsy

I stumbled across this gorgeous tiny mosaic pendant on Etsy last week, and had to have it. Jodi French from NH makes these delicate gems - here's her Etsy link. Everything was packaged safely and beautifully and she even threw in a cute freebie. I know I'll be wearing this often. The leaf is polymer clay and the surrounding objects are glass beads and a seashell. This pic that I took doesn't do the beads justice, as they have a pretty blue-green tint to them. The color combo of gold/blue/green reminds me of a scarf I made for the shop last fall that sold right away. Must - get - busy - need - employees... I'm wondering how she did the grouting so microscopically (the pendant is about 1" x 1.5"). I'm guessing she used the unsanded grout, which might mix up more thinly than the sanded, and maybe could be applied with an eye dropper. I wonder how the grout sticks to the metal bezel and doesn't just pop out? I'm always full of questions.

What on earth?

Or maybe the title should be, "What in the sky???"

This is Bean, little Beaner, now 14 months old. She doesn't jump up onto the exposed beams in our living room as often as she did when she was younger, but if a fly or bee is out and about, oh yeah, she's up there. These are pics of her absorbing the heat up there (ugh), and enjoying herself, pleased as punch. She'll come down when she feels like it!