Sunday, August 14, 2011

ASG Inside the Loop Group, Paint Stiks, and a Cookie

Yesterday was a crazy busy sewing day.  In the morning our Inside the Loop group met.  I walked into the room and it was empty and no one came for five-minutes.  After two more people came, the Bayland worker finally told us that he had moved our group to another room.  I wasn't happy since Mary and I had had a conversation with the Manager asking her not to move our group to another room.  The other rooms are not conducive for twenty people setting up sewing machines.  We finally got the meeting underway and the Manager walked in and gave us a five-minute speech on how they can change the rooms whenever they want and they don't have to give us notice.  Also how they only had 3 people working there.  ( I had heard this speech with Mary and I was annoyed she was taking up our meeting time with her work problems).  Then she walked in again and brought cookies left over from another meeting.  The cookies were nice but the interruption was not.  We only meet for two hours once a month and the meeting room should not be the focus of our meeting.  The whole situation through Joyce "off her stride" which was too bad because she presented a wonderful program on embellishing fabric with Paint Stiks.
     Shiva Paint Stiks are tubes of oil based paint that can be put on anything that can be painted and not just fabric.  Joyce said it can go on any fabric that is not going to be dry cleaned.  The Stiks have either an iridescent or matte finish.  Joyce had Paint Stiks that were 20 years old so although they are expensive, they last forever.  Joyce recommended the Cedar Canyon website and Laura Murray Designs.  She brought two books: "Paintstiks on Fabric, Simple Techniques, Fantastic Results"  and "Design Magic for Paint Stiks on Fabric".  Both books by Shelly Stokes.  There is also a video.
     Joyce demonstrated three ways to use Paint Stiks.  First you need to peel the skin off the top of the tube.  Joyce said she bought a cheap vegetable peeler she uses and peels it over a tin baking pan because you do not want to get any small shavings anywhere.  She had a mat called Grip n Grips that grips the rubbing plates or stencils you put on it so things do not slip.  She showed us rubbings over texture plates, stamping, and her favorite, stenciling.  She recommends Lois & Diane Ericson's stencils.  She buys a different stencil brushes for each color.  She said the designs pop more on dark fabrics and she recommended shading and adding pink to pop out the color.  If you get a glob, pick it up with cellophane tape.  Clean up with baby wipes and a product called Brush Soap.  When you are finished, let the paint dry for4-5 days and then heat set by covering your fabric with parchment paper and press with an iron.  After the demonstrations we all got to try out the Paint Stiks.  It was a lot of fun and easy to get beautiful results.  I may look further into this at the Quilt Festival this year.  For more information check these  websites: http://cedarcanyontextiles.com or http://www.lauramurraydesigns.com.
   After the meeting I needed to leave immediately to drive to Clear Lake.  I ran into a traffic jam and didn't get to eat lunch so I was very happy I had been able to eat a cookie to tide me over. 

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